Tag: tahoe

Hello blog. Happy to see you’re still here. No, I haven’t forgotten about you. Though if you thought that I had abandoned you for something like my posterous account, I could see that would be running through your database tables and php scripts. Don’t worry. I’m only using that for that for quick publishing photos and videos taken on my iPhone.

But I’m sure you’re wondering why no updates for since last Fall. Let me bring you up to speed.

In so many ways, Ticketfly was a perfect match for me. But in other ways, not so much. As I write this I’m tuned into a live video stream of the Twitter Chirp Conference. I’ve already heard a couple of the speakers talk about how working on a startup completely takes over your life. I definitely found that to be the case in the last half of 2009. Even though I was having a great time, other parts of my life were being impacted. I have to admit that I was not completely self-aware of how little quality time I was spending with Mason and Jude. The people at Ticketfly were great and super understanding of the demands of two children. But that doesn’t change the fact that there were a million things to do there every single day. Many of which simply couldn’t wait until a more convenient time. And yes there were plenty of days when I left the Ticketfly offices in San Francisco around 4 to head down the coast to Half Moon Bay and pick up the boys from daycare. And yes, I would get them home and spend dinner time with them. But it didn’t take long for me to look at them and start thinking “OK, when are you two going to be ready for bed so I can open up the laptop and so work until 10 or 11 pm?” That’s no way to look at your children.

Sure, Keturah is around to share the load, but she’s working with her own start up. So it was a double whammy as the requirements on our time were constantly smashing into each other. The Obama administration recently held the Workplace Flexibility Forum in which they talked about the “juggler family.” Here’s an excerpt from The President’s remarks:

Today, two-thirds of American families with kids are headed by two working parents or a single working parent, and the result is the rise of what one expert I know refers to as “the juggler family.” For these families, every day is a high wire act. Everything is scheduled right down to the minute. There’s no room for error. If the car breaks down, or somebody gets sick, or there’s a problem at school, that begins a cascading domino effect that leaves everybody scrambling.

That’s our family. Described with frightening perfection. Except in addition to things like car break downs throwing us off course, Keturah and I were dealing with late afternoon meetings that started late and ran until well past 5 pm. Or last minute phone calls. And even worse, business calls to our cell phones while we were trying to enjoy a family dinner or read a bedtime story to our kids.

To say that our lifestyle was unsustainable is an understatement. And something had to give. So in January, when Ticketfly indicated that, due to budgetary constraints, they were going to be unable to continue to retain my consulting services, my initial reactions were of sadness and disappointment because of the fun work that it was and because of the good people that I was working alongside. Good people who had become my friends.

In fact, it was so disappointing that I didn’t even say goodbye to them. Nothing personal. In fact, it was a pretty rude and immature move on my part. But it was just something that I didn’t really want to do. So I avoided it by slowly and quietly drifting away.

Sorry ‘Flyers. You’re a great group of people and I have no doubt that you’ll help Ticketfly achieve greatness. I wish you all nothing but the best. Proud to call you all my friends.

And eventually, my disappointment washed away into relief and a true understanding of what I was really disappointed about in the first place: the recurring conflict of my personal and professional ambitions with the realities of being in a juggler family that includes two toddlers. Living that existence is extremely difficult. The challenges are extremely physical and emotional and they took a tool on me last year. In addition to creeping close to exhaustion at times, healthy nutrition became a term completely lost on me, and exercise…does stretching on the couch count?

Ultimately the relief I felt was because a decision that I didn’t want to have to make was made for. I had often said to Keturah in 2009 “I’m not so sure we can both be involved in startups AND raise these two kids AND keep our sanity. “

Now I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m not. Yes, I did go to Vermont last Fall to visit some friends. And the last night pig roast was something only a bunch of idiotic college friends would do. And in that same trip I went to Fenway for a playoff game with my parents. And we had a wonderful family Tahoe trip a couple of months ago that included Mason’s first time on skis.

Yeah, there have been some good times. But I want more of those. So I’ve been making changes recently. I’ve been regrouping the last couple of months. I did dabble in a few freelance projects, but none were really what I was looking for long term. Mostly I’ve been relaxing, spending time with my family, reading books (another thing that went in the waste bin last year), trying to eat better, and get myself on some exercise programs. As you can tell from the lack of posting here and on Twitter and Facebook, I went into hibernation a bit. I’ve talked with a few startups, but wasn’t looking to dive into the questionable work/life balances that came with those types of opportunities. Being in a “juggler family” isn’t something I want to do long-term and I’m ready to tackle that from another angle. This post is long enough. I’ll write more on what’s next for me in my next post.